Michael Peck spent the summer after his college graduation in a Napa Valley wine cellar, pitching yeast into a grape skin and juice mixture and filling 1,000 barrels with fresh red and white wine. On his rare days off, he would “sip and spit” his way through six wineries a day in an attempt to […]
Author Archives: Melyssa Cruz
‘Next to Normal’ aims to portray realities of mental health issues
Lithium- and Xanax-induced semblances of happiness are hidden behind the makeshift smiles of the Goodmans, a seemingly average American family. A trauma hit the Goodman family 16 years ago and still echoes in their minds. In three performances running Friday through Saturday, Act III Theatre Ensemble at UCLA will bring the Goodman family’s mental scars […]
Student-run Web series premiere to go ‘Beyond the Bruin’
Wearing leopard slippers, a tiger-patterned cardigan and a vibrant orange afro, Panini Jones laid between two miniature palm trees. Tears flowed down his face as Jones announced his profound aspiration to be as selfless as the tree in the popular children’s book “The Giving Tree.” Jones is just one of the many comedically improvised characters […]
Westwood BID recap – Feb. 19
The Westwood Village Improvement Association, also known as the BID, is a nonprofit organization tasked with improving the state of Westwood Village. The BID was created by property and business owners in August 2011 to provide Westwood Village with functions the City of Los Angeles could not provide. Its board of directors meets monthly. Andrew […]
Zimbabwean author to speak at Fowler Museum on award-winning novel
NoViolet Bulawayo describes Zimbabwe through the lucid eyes of 10-year-old Darling, who hungrily scours wealthy streets looking for guavas in the novel “We Need New Names.” Unapologetic and direct, Darling eventually leaves her conflict-torn home for Detroit, where she faces wintry suburbia and the disorienting immigrant experience. The first black African woman to be shortlisted […]
Pieology to take a slice of Westwood’s competitive pizza market
Lucio Lopez dances at 8 p.m. on a Friday to bass-heavy music and shouts to students about 99-cent pizza slices, while the Westwood eatery he works for sits empty behind him. Around the corner, four pizza restaurants rest on a single Westwood intersection. Three more pizzerias are located two blocks down. Within the next three […]
Public health students, faculty to run charity relay to support research
Taking a sick day was never an option for Ana Mascareñas’ mother, who had to upkeep her job as a high school counselor to support four children. Staying healthy was integral to taking care of her family. Mascareñas, a graduate student at the Fielding School of Public Health, said she grew up admiring her mother’s […]